Someone put in three dollars.  And two-thirds of those who attended didn’t write anything.

We are very serious about listening and intend on doing some follow-up with these.  In the next weeks we will be praying about groups to start, classes to teach, series to emphasize on the weekends, and groups to connect to one another so that these dreams don’t just stay as wishes on paper.  Several of you dreamed of being able to share your faith more effectively.  We will start the follow-up with you.  That will be our next weekend series following the present series and it will start on June 14-15.

This was all connected to our current series entitled, “Who’s Next?”  We are talking about reaching the next generation and Matt Murphy challenged us as a next-gen speaker to listen, pray and release.  Well, we gave you an opportunity to dream so that we could listen and we gave the next gen our ear for a weekend.  This weekend we will shift the stage.  What if the next generation were to listen to us?  What would we say to them?

We will stay in the Pastoral Letters of Paul to Timothy as we address that question.  And as always, we want to start with the Scripture but then get personal in our response.  Paul will lay out some principles for us but we each have to answer the question.  What would I say to them?

You will have that chance this weekend.  See you then.

Look closely and you’ll see examples of this throughout Scripture: Abraham & Isaac, Moses & Joshua, and Paul & Timothy. It is clear that God wants to grow the gifts he has planted in the next generation, and asks us to work together to see that the whole world is awakened and transformed.

We will share new experiences during this series as we allow the Spirit of God to show us his dream for this community. I trust that by the end of these six weeks, each one of us will find very specific and individual ways to step up and slide over.

We were all pretty pumped around here that week.  So why is it we are so amazed when God moves?  We expected him to do something.  We planned it by allowing lots of time at the end of the service.  We made the challenge specific.  We had extra clothes in the back.  I think it is about God being God and us being human.  Sometimes our faith just doesn’t catch up to his expectations.  Other times we pray, but don’t want to come off as presumptuous.  But most of the time I think it is the clear but simple fact that following and serving God is a mystery.  He moves when he chooses.  And he chose that weekend.

Don’t miss this opportunity to pray for those who boldly confessed their faith.  Pray that they continue in their walk.  Pray that Christ becomes even more real and more near to them.

We look forward to more of his work!

Soccer season in Hillsborough opened last week and for our first practice I worked on one drill only - corner kicks. I think the kids thought I was nuts. There was so much more important stuff to deal with as our first game was only 10 days away. Well, last Saturday we played that first game. We won 2-1. Both goals were scored on corner kicks. Now the kids are paying real close attention to their coach during practices.

You know me - as a pastor I can’t help but think about life lessons from stuff like that. I think our daily lives are like playing the soccer games. You have to think on the fly. You make decisions and move forward. Sometimes the odds seem to be stacked against you and other times it seems like everything is going your way. Regardless, I think the game is decided by what you are doing in your practice sessions.

Personally, I am experiencing some storms right now and so I have focused on some critical early morning practice sessions of prayer and Bible study. I take my time in those sessions. I am pretty sure they will come back to make the difference in the score. So what are you practicing?

Hey, we are going to celebrate this weekend! The final week of our Awaken series will include baptisms. So come prepared to enjoy the Lord. I will be speaking from Acts 8. Why not take a look at that chapter and try to guess what part I will use and what my main point will be? Then this weekend you can see if you guessed correctly. See you then.

How many of you are interested in being baptized on the weekend of April 26-27?  Why not send me a response as you read this?  If you have found yourself awakened during this series or you just have never decided to be baptized, then contact me and join the group that will celebrate that weekend.

Before you decide your weekend activities, remember that this Saturday morning you can join us for one of our core Discovery classes.  If you want to explore membership and find out why we believe that developing community is part of the journey of awakening, then come to D¹ - Discovering Community.  If you want to get a better handle on the disciplines associated with your journey and understand why knowing God is the first step, take D² - Discovering Spiritual Journey.  And if you want to take a step into service and catch the fever of bringing hope into our world, then come to D³ - Discovering Ministry.  Keep in mind that these are sequential classes.  Sign up today.

A museum opened in Havana last year to commemorate the Castro years.  In a news article covering the event, a reporter commented that on the Saturday he visited the building, he found it completely empty but for a lone, bored attendant who asked him for an antacid (since “medicines are very scarce”). In this caricature of the country’s larger problems, I can’t help but think that Castro’s revolution died well before his retirement.

Meeting the needs of people is a critical lesson that Castro should have learned.  Let’s not make the same mistake at home.

Jesus is our cornerstone.  He is relevant and compassionate to each generation. God’s Word and our faith should continue to meet the practical needs around us, because the incredible work of Christ will naturally see people around us changed, just as we are transformed.  Friends and strangers should walk through these doors because they want to experience a relevant, a compassionate, a practical love.

I don’t want anyone to live less than a full life — do you?

During the next five weeks we will continue our new series, Awaken.  We will see how Scripture tells of lives that were changed when a connection was made with the risen Jesus.  And this weekend, you will actually hear more than one account…

This week I read that the Gospel of Luke speaks about the poor and our responsibility towards them an average of one in every seven verses.  Now, I haven’t counted the verses myself, but I will definitely be studying them further.  And if it is true, then it’s an issue we need to think much more about as a church.  If you want to join me in your own personal study to see what Scripture has to say about the poor, I’d welcome the chance to hear about your findings: send me email me at bloghannold@princetonalliance.org or just hit reply if you received this entry in your Inbox.

I’ll be enjoying time with my family next week.  I probably won’t post another entry for a little while, but you are always in my prayers.

Realizing the need to address this, we considered a number of alternatives: adding a Sunday evening service, an earlier service on Sunday mornings, or even a service on another weekday.  After much prayer and thought, we chose what we believe to be the best option, took a straw poll, and decided on our new service times:

• Saturdays — 6pm
• Sundays — 9am, 10:30am, 12pm

This weekend we begin the new schedule.  We trust that it will let even more people encounter Jesus firsthand.  In fact, I would be thrilled if we continued to grow beyond even these four services, and had to talk about our next set of options…

Now, we expect that 10:30am will continue to draw a crowd (just as 11am did), so we’re asking that you try the 9am or noon service for a few weeks to see whether it works for you.  And particularly this Easter, when we expect many visitors to join us at 10:30.

Speaking of, I am very excited about Easter this year!  It is one of the few times when we can talk about the foundational truth of our faith to so many, and afford everyone the very real chance to meet a very real Savior.  (Besides that, I just love to celebrate, which is exactly what we’ll be doing!)

Join us for Good Friday at 6pm or 7:30pm (both services are identical), and for our Easter services during one of the newly scheduled times.

See you then.

• that we are anti-homosexual,
• that we are judgmental, and
• that we are hypocritical.

Among young people (ages 16-29), these numbers were found to be particularly high: 91% said we are against homosexuals, 87% saw us as judgmental, and 85% felt we are hypocritical.  We have become known for what we oppose, rather than what we are for.

If these statistics hold for our area, where literally 100,000 young people are attending colleges within driving distance of PAC, then we can assume that 80,000 - 90,000 of them will never be interested in attending our church.  And that doesn’t include the young professionals in our area.

So, how do we address this?  The answer is not as complex as we may think.

First, we have to leave our facility to reach our community.  If their perception of us deters them from approaching us, then we need to find them where they are.

Once outside our walls, we need to live and speak in such a way that people can experience the true nature of Jesus.  We will never change someone’s mind with a sermon — they have to see us in authentic action. They need to see that our love and concern for other people is real.  They need to see that we are open to talk about and struggle with difficult issues. They need to see that we do not consider them as objects to win to Christ but that we are interested in them as people.

They need to know us by our love.

The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.

I always loved that last sentence — that people were coming to know Christ daily.  But this time, as I read these verses, it struck me that no one but the believers gathered together for the meetings. Even though people held them in such high regard, there remained this fear or awe that kept others away from the Christian gatherings.  If that were the case, then how did more and more people come to know Christ?

It had to be outside these meetings!   Believers were coming in to be informed and impassioned about Christ but they were going back out to live and speak these truths to their friends and neighbors.   They may have met together at the “hub,” but it was their lives out at the “rim” that made the difference.

Where is the strength of our Christian lives lived out — at the hub or the rim? Where are we working harder to get the message out through our lives and words? If we want to learn from the first church, then we had better start making “rim-work” a priority.

I hope to see you this weekend.  (And don’t forget to set your clocks forward by an hour on Saturday night.)